Red Wings not taking struggling Devils lightly; Mike Babcock wants second line to step up

NEWARK, N.J. -- The NHL's two most successful franchises of the last 15 years meet tonight while going in opposite directions, as the Detroit Red Wings visit the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit Plus).

The Red Wings snapped a three-game winless skid with a 4-2 victory over Montreal Friday and lead the Western Conference with 39 points. The Devils lost their fourth consecutive game Friday in Ottawa, 3-2, and have the second-worst record in the NHL at 8-18-2 (18 points), ahead of only the New York Islanders.

But Red Wings coach Mike Babcock is confident his club will not take the Devils lightly.

“I don’t approach it that way one bit, neither does our team,'' Babcock said after Friday's game. “We’re playing a good team. They’re always looking to turn their year around. It’s big points for us.''

The Devils are the most surprising team in the NHL -- in a bad way. They had high hopes after signing star forward Ilya Kovalchuk to a 15-year, $100 million dollar contract but have fallen flat under first-year coach John MacLean. Kovalchuk has five goals, eight assists and a minus-18 rating in 27 games.

“They’re a really good team, they have a lost of good players, it’s just
kind of a rough season for them,'' Red Wings forward Patrick Eaves said. "So we have to try to make it hard for
them. Clog the neutral zone. It doesn’t need to be pretty. We respect
their skill and hopefully we can keep this little thing going.’’

The home team has dominated in this series. The Red Wings are 1-7-1 in New Jersey since 1995, winning 2-1 on Dec. 16, 2006. The teams meet again on Jan. 26 in Detroit, where the Devils are 1-9-0 since 1995.

The Devils are destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since 1995-96, which would snap their streak of postseason appearances at 13. That's second only to Detroit's streak of 19 consecutive playoff berths, among current runs.

Chris Osgood will start in goal for Detroit, looking for his 399th career win. It is uncertain if Martin Brodeur will start for the Devils. He returned on Friday from an elbow injury that had idled him since Nov. 18. Johan Hedberg is the Devils' backup.

No word yet on whether the Red Wings will make a lineup change at forward, possibly inserting Kris Draper for someone.

Babcock said after Friday's game that he wants to see more from his second line of Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Todd Bertuzzi.

“I’d like to see that Fil line get to another level,'' Babcock said. "I think they can be better than that tonight.''

Bertuzzi has no points and a minus-6 rating in his last three games. Filppula has one point (an assist) and a minus-4 rating in his last four games.

Franzen, however, is riding a five-game points streak (three goals, three assists), though he has spent part of that time playing with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.